The Tinley Park Meetup this past Sunday Nov. 5th was well attended in spite of the threat of heavy rain. There were 30 in attendance and no less than seven first time attendee. All seemed to enjoy the presentations' and general discussion.

First point of business after a brief introduction by everyone to the group was the announcement of the Spring Starved Rock State Meeting and Presentation Weekend Event May 19th & 20th of 2018.

We encouraged all interested in staying at the Lodge to secure their rooms as soon as they can since there are only 31 room open for Saturday & Sunday as of Wednesday this past week.

Its important to add a two day requirement is needed for room at the lodge on either Friday Saturday or Saturday Sunday so please be aware of this.

We covered Some of the 2017 case reports from this past year. Jim Wolford, SSD and Bill Leone, SD presented details on a few of their closed cases that were classified by them as Unknown. Sam detailed some of the comical yet annoying Hoax Narratives Reports with there accompanying photos.The Presentation was on Mass Sightings and highlighted those with supportive and testable evidence.

The emphasis of this meeting was on and will be from now on "Supportive and Testable Data". There seems to be a great divide in understanding this vital aspect in Ufology as well as our entire cultural environment which touch on by our guest speaker, Richard Dolan.

Richard joined us by phone bring us up to date on his research as well as covering the main topic of past MUFON Symposium as well as his position on the derailing of focused qualitative research and reliable information by sensational and unverifiable stories that have been bolstered by there popularity via the internet and social media. Richard took a number of questions directly from the group the interaction and insight shared was valued by all.

​The First llinois MUFON Meetup of 2016

January 10th,2016

Despite the below freezing temperatures and the proceeding ominous threat of many inches of snow.

Approximately half of those who submitted an RSVP actually were in attendance. The original count for potential attendees was over 60 giving way to the idea of accommodating the excess by prescribing a *breakout group. These groups would be focused on specific subject matter more in line with personal experience. Art Kastl and Mark Kuba volunteered to monitor the *group if needed.

* This concept will be implement if needed for future meetings/events.

Richard Dolan was our first speaker initially planned to Skype in at the beginning of the Meeting.

Due to a series of technical difficulty we were unable to use Skype. Richard then had to postpone for

an hour pushing forward the next scheduled activity which was the introduction of the Illinois MUFON CFI Team. A number of detailed personal accounts perused as well as sighting accounts from the attendees along with a short Q&A.

NOTE: Prior to the meeting an email when out requesting all attendees watch three accessible on demand via YouTube episodes of UFOs Declassified. It was these topics and the facts surround the case plus the proposed debunking statements by the so-called skeptics which were central to this meeting.

As requested Richard first covered the Bentwaters-Woodbridge-Rendlesham Case addressing a number of issues that were called into question by so-called skeptics or as presented to the viewing audience "Experts". Beyond this he alluded to "Cold War" related details and the proposed Kennedy/UFO memos. Next Richard addressed the Belgium Wave and other related cases covered in the episode on "Large Black Triangles". Lastly covered was the "Battle of LA" which one so-called Expert dismissed as being caused by military personal mistaking the planet "Venus" as an enemy threat and "War Jitters." This was clearly dismissed by one of the two presentation by our own Astronomical Expert, Darren Drake. Who keenly and definitively pointed out that Venus wasn't visible at that time, place and date.

There was a number of questions posed directly to Richard by some attendees and as always he delivered volumes of insight and many new valuable resources for creditable information.

After reconvening for the second half of the meeting we welcomed more personal account. Some announcement were made on the Michigan Event in March followed by a presentation by of Triage Director Daniel Snow regarding the best cases for 2015. One of the four cases Dan presented had video evidence recorded in night vision mode. Dan had this video sent out for detailed analysis by an expert in evaluating such evidence for the UFO research community more notably MUFON. The returning explanation was met with surprise from the audience demonstrating the need for a deeper understating and training of optics.

Our Astronomy Expert, Darren Drake captivated the audience with his proficient use of readily available technology and reference material via a common smart phone. With detailed graphic so true to life and reliable calibrations spanning the age's one can illustrate a host of heavenly bodies within their precise position for any location & time…and more.

Darren presented an array of quality optics that he highly recommended for our members and CFIs one most reasonably prices and easy to learn. It was the photos of privately owned large telescopes from a Florida Star Party that put the toping on his presentation. One such enviable telescope being Darren's.

Lastly he shared beautiful images of the moon taken by Darren with the aid of one of his many telescopes.

In closing there were announcement regarding the May 21st Spring Event at Starved Rock as well as welcoming any interested attendees to join us for at Banana's Restaurant in the Holiday Inn Tinley Park Convention Center there afterward.